Carol Summers, Jungle Bouquet
Recommended by Paige (Collections Manager):
'Jungle Bouquet' brings me so much energy and joy. It takes Summers' signature bold colors and blurred lines even further so the tassels become hyper saturated red blobs. The proportions are complicated with huge palm trees fitting into a ceramic vase that occupies an entire stage setting. To me, these contradictions and oddities are just playful and inviting. I enjoy this piece at first glance every time I see it.
Art Hansen, Red Barn and Truck
Recommended by Rebecca (Gallery Manager):
Of Art Hansen’s watercolor paintings, 'Red Barn and Truck' is my favorite. Between the barn and the sky, there is a lightness and brightness that we don’t often see in Hansen’s work. The soft, barely there impression of clouds in the distance contrasts with the intense red, while a rusted old truck sits in high grass and almost disappears against the barn. The clean lines and bright colors give the landscape a feeling of freshness, while the shapes become abstract in their starkness.
Akiko Taniguchi, Atom
Recommended by Nikki (Fine Print Photographer & Content Publisher):
Collagraph is a medium that became popular in the ‘60s after synthetic adhesives and plastics became more readily available. Artists from all over the world were invited to visit the studio of Glen Alps in Seattle, WA to try out the process of gluing substrates, scribing marks into the dried substrates, and printing the results as intaglio plates. This relatively new medium has continued its popularity in the studios of contemporary artists, like Akiko Taniguchi. In ‘Atom’, Taniguchi is using texture and layering on her collagraph to pull the viewer into her 10x8 inch world of abstraction. In it, viewers get to explore the word ‘atom’ within complimentary red and green hues and explosive almond shapes. Every square inch of the print is delightfully filled with new and interesting textures that only collagraph can offer.
Seoul (Sohee) Kim, A Box for Rest Time
Recommended by Suzannah (Marketing and Communications Manager):
Seoul (Sohee) Kim writes about her art as a playful engagement with alienating and ironic realities though imaginary space. Much of her work faces scenes such as packed train cars and claustrophobic workspaces, where bored and tired figures coexist with magical elements from her imagination. While humorous, much of her work conveys a sense of melancholy and anxiety, using a pastel color pallet, figures depicted in uncomfortable positions, and almost hallucinatory symbolism. “A Box for Rest Time” is as chaotic, muted, and claustrophobic as her other work, but it fills me with more peace and comfort than any other emotion. A figure sleeps in a box, filled to the brim with a messy bed, and next to them sleeps an oversized cat. I too want to hide away from the world and find sanctuary in a little box and a big bed with a big sleepy cat. There one finds safety, dreamless sleep, and rest beyond imagination.
Jean Gumpper, Tracery
Recommended by Catherine (Collections Specialist):
Jean Gumpper's woodcuts are expressions of her experiences in nature and each print feels like a spontaneous glimpse into the natural world, dynamic and full of depth. For her piece titled 'Tracery', Jean combines traditional woodcut printing with pochoir, a French stencil-based technique, to create a deeply layered and multi-textured quality. The lively leaves and vines in the foreground wind over an intricate web of dark branches, which resembles tracery on a gothic window. I'm drawn to any metaphor between the natural world and historical architecture, and the play of light shining through this nature-formed window inspires my imagination.